Messay M. Tefera (PhD)

Associate Professor, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia

Alumnus of 富达 Visiting Scholar Program

Africa and China make about 36% of the total population of the world, with nearly equivalent number of populations. These two regions of the world have established socioeconomic relations since ancient times. China is not new in Africa both during hard times and fortunes for development. Africa-China bilateral trade, for example, dates back to the 10^th century BC, when the Egyptian city of Alexandria started trading with the people settling in the present-day China. In recent decades, China is a top investor, developer and aid provider in Africa. The Africa-China relations has continued more robustly with more responsibilities, challenges, opportunities and lessons to be learned amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to the ongoing massive investment projects and loans, China has taken a lead in lifesaving responsibilities in Africa at present with the outbroke of the pandemic.

Ever since the first case was reported to the World Health Organization (WHO), the outbreak of the COVID-19 has grown into a global pandemic. This means that the world is in a public health crisis together. As the first country suffering the outbreak, the COVID-19 case in China is flattening after the long fight since January 2020. Its lessons, experiences and supports in fighting against the pandemic are vital to the globe during this global hard time. It is with this understanding that the African leaders (particularly the Premier of Ethiopia Dr Abiya Ahmed) appealed to China for medical resources and health experts to fight against the pandemic.

The African people and the governments are well aware that China has been in Africa as a major aid provider, investor and developer particularly in recent decades. With the spread of COVID-19 in to the continent, China entered to supporting Africa with the responsibility of saving lives. This has given the opportunity for African peoples and the governments that China is in Africa not only as a development partner but also as a vital emergency assistant for the continent. In fact, African peoples and the governments are already well aware that China has endeavored to integrate the interests of the Chinese people with the people of Africa, providing assistance to Africa within the framework of South-South Cooperation to reduce poverty and most recently to fight the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa. Evidences across the continent indicate that both as a development assistant and as a vital emergency respondent, China adheres to the principles of not imposing any political conditions, not interfering in the internal affairs of the African peoples and the governments and fully respecting the rights to independently choosing their own paths and models of development. Africa knows that the basic principles that China upholds in providing foreign assistance are mutual respect, equality, keeping promise, mutual benefits and win-win. China is providing assistance to Africa mainly in undertaking complete projects, providing goods and materials, conducting technical cooperation and human resources development cooperation, dispatching medical teams and volunteers, offering emergency humanitarian aid, and reducing/exempting debts.

As regard to the current Africa-China collaboration to fight COVID-19 pandemic, China is massively donating medical supplies to Africa mainly through Jack Ma and Alibaba foundations. Currently, Africa has registered over 39,000 COVID-19 confirmed cases spread across the continent, of which more than 1,600 are deaths (as of 1 May 2020) according to Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (African CDC).The huge donation is one of the most remarkable supports that China has made to Africa. It has been made through African CDC and African Union (AU) to be distributed to all the 54 African countries. The African CDC and AU have so far received the donation in three rounds (as of 27 April 2020). In the first round, more than 6 million donated supplies arrived in Addis Ababa (the capital of Ethiopia) on 22 March 2020; while the second-round donation arrived on 7 April 2020. The third massive donation arrived in Addis Ababa on 27 April 2020. Additional batches are due to arrive over the course of the next few weeks. Just to mention the items donated in the third-round, it mainly included 4.6 million face masks, 500,000 swabs and test kits, 300 ventilators, 200,000 sets of protective clothing, 200,000 face shields, 2,000 temperature guns, 100 body temperature scanners, and 500,000 pairs of gloves. Apart from the medical supplies, the foundations are connecting African medical professionals with doctors from China and around the world to collaborate online and exchange hard-earned lessons in the treatment and prevention of COVID-19.

In the past, most Africa’s development aid and emergency responses used to come from the Western industrialized countries (traditional donors), especially from OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development). However, the current massive donation to Africa to fight COVID-19 pandemic and the ever-increasing Chinese investment and infrastructure development in the continent show that China has emerged as a single most important development partner and donor to Africa. The increasing importance of non-traditional donors has meant that the economic and political stronghold of western countries in Africa has gradually decreasing and being substituted by non-OCED countries of which China is now the largest contributor. Hence, African people and the governments understand and appreciate that China has evolved a net investment sources and donor of Africa in recent decades.

Though China is massively contributing to the development and lifesaving arenas in Africa, the Africa-China relations has been not free of challenges. Supported and propagated by a few Western media and scholars, some are trying to disparage the strong and need-based Africa-China relations to the level of ‘neocolonialism’ or ‘China’s hegemony in Africa’. This is a hasty and non-evidence-based generalization as there is no China's increasing unfair economic domination on African economy and no Chinese cultural hegemony. Rather everything is based on mutual benefits and respect. The people and the governments of Africa know than anybody does that there is no potential to undermine African identify, sovereignty and development that leads China’s neocolonial power in Africa. A few Western media and their affiliates are also trying to spread the current a few very personal COVID-induced ‘xenophobic’ attempts both in Africa and China. The vast majority of African people love and respect Chinese people and culture. The debt crisis scenario is also another area of discourse that the two parties (Africa and China) are required to put a solution to it without any interference from an outsider.

As a concluding remark and the way forward, COVID-19 pandemic has come with more new challenges, opportunities, responsibilities and lessons regarding Africa-China relations. The challenges are not simple, but can be overwhelmed through furthering the existing collaborations. The pandemic has also provided a vital opportunity to understand each other that the presence of China in Africa is vital for Africans even during hard times. The keen friendship China has shown to Africa to discharge its humane responsibility through donation of massive medical supplies and heath experts will remain imprinted in the hearts of the vast majority of the African people.Africa can also learn vital lessons from China both in sustainable development and the fight against COVID-19.In case of the pandemic, compared to China, the outbreak of the COVID-19 in Africa is different as Africa has started with imported cases. Hence, the containment strategy to fight against the disease could be different for Africa. Currently, it may be inappropriate for most African countries to completely shut down their economic activities. For one thing, mass community transmission of the COVID-19 has not happened in most countries of the continent yet as most of the confirmed cases (until 2 May 2020）are all imported according to information released by African CDC. For another reason, Africa’s economy relies largely on importation of goods and services unlike the case of China. Hence, a severe lockdown of economic activities in most African countries might imply the risk of social unrests as people’s livelihood could be significantly adversely affected. This could in return hinders the efforts on fighting the COVID-19.